My first great movie list

When I was at school, my English teacher always used to tell us to write about what we know.

I suppose this is why I became a journalist in the first place. I have an extensive general knowledge which covers a range of the weirdest topics such as naming most of the capital cities of the world, to knowing who sang 90% of the James Bond Theme songs, to ancient history such as the 10 year battle for Troy or the rise of the Zulu Nation under Shaka Zulu.

I also know a thing or two about writing, I wont say that I was the worst sportsman in the world believe me I was more then adequate, but my true talents were always writing and a bit of singing.

Anyway, we digress. When I began my post about our friend Mel Gibson this morning it was originally going to be a post about some of my favorite movies in some of the catagories I enjoy. but because I am on a crusade to make people look beyond the mask that people portray in music and films, the post turned out how it turned out.


So now, I will discuss a few of my favorite movies of all times in their specific genres.

Historical Epics
I got hooked on this when I was a child watching the miniseries Shaka Zulu. Because there were no real historical epics for a long time I cant recall anything of any significance.

Then Gladiator came along, and I was hooked. Russel Crowe gave a rousing performance as Maximus. whenever I hit a bit of a wobbly in my personal life I watch this show and it sorts my shit out.

And unlike all of my other favorites I cant pinpoint what it is about this movie that draws me in emotionally. Perhaps it is the fact that you really sympathise with the man. He endures all of these hardships and then when he gets the opportunity to stand before his tormentor he gets taunted even further buy him.

Also I feel the performance of Connie Nielsen in this movie was outstanding. She is surrounded by serious Male Hollywood heavyweights and she more then holds her own.

She summed up the whole two and a half hours of the movie with just one statement at the end:

"Is Rome worth one good mans life? He believed it once, make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him."

Other notable epics include Troy and The Kingdom of Heaven.

Westerns
I love western movies. Besides the Crusades, if I could have been born in a different era, I would want to live in the Wild West.

My favorite here is Wyatt Earp. The long ass one with Kevin Costner. Apart form Gene Hackman, who played his father, there are no stand out Hollywood heavyweights in the movie, but it is close to an accurate portrayal of the Gunfight at O.K. Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride.

Early on in the movie, Hackman makes a statement which is not only true for the movie but for life in general:

"Remember, nothing counts so much as family, everyone else is just strangers"

The cinematography in the movie was reminiscent of that in Dances with Wolves, which won Costner an Oscar. You get so lost in the expansive scenes that you could loose track of some of the loopholes in the story, but all in all it was a good effort.

Other notable Westerns include: The 2009 version of 3:10 to Yuma, the 1993 version of Tombstone, True Grit, Unforgiven and Open Range.

Comedy
At times I can be a barrel of laughs to be around. So it comes as no surprise that I enjoy a good comedy.

My top favorite has to be Life. It stars Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence as wrongly convicted murderers who get sentences to life in a State Pen in Mississippi.

With this one its just the ridiculous situations that the two find themselves in that make this movie a classic. It reminds me alot of myself and my best friend.

Other notable movies in this category include: Beverly Hills Cop, A Vampire in Brooklyn, and Grown Ups.

South Africa, the new Wild West?

According to a worldwide poll conducted by experts, South Africa is rated the most violent country in the world with a violent crime occurring every 10 minutes somewhere in the country.

Although I don’t believe in averages, I think that the violent nature of the country must not be underestimated.

Over the past two years, the Johannesburg CBD has become somewhat like Tombstone Arizona in the 1800's with gunfights reminiscent of the great ‘Gun Fight at O.K Coral’ being a regular occurrence.

The latest incident occurred yesterday when the Askria opened fire with rubber bullets on a crowd of striking truck drivers who are 'peacefully' protesting about wages. This is less then a month after the 5 0 fired rubber bullets into a crowd of 'peacefully' striking taxi drivers. As you can see, the South African Police Service doesn't like peaceful protests.

It is REALLY scary to think that in less then 30 days, there have been two gunfights in South Africa’s financial capital.

My favorite incident was last year when the JMPD went on strike in the JHB CBD and the SAPS opened fire with live rounds. Not to be outdone, the JMPD took out their six-shooters and returned the fire.

This would have been fine, except that the gunfight took place at 4:30 pm when town is gridlocked with people going home from work.

This could pose a problem during 2010 when the eyes of the world will be on South Africa during the FIFA World Cup. Imagine South Africa’s international image should there be such a gunfight during the world cup? And don’t think this is not a possibility, Government will be well advised to get their house in order, because already the crowd in South Africa is fickle and will TOI TOI at the drop of a hat.

But is there a solution in sight? Seemingly not, when you have the future president of South Africa jumping up and down on a stage making himself look like a TIT singing about machine guns, the light at the end of the tunnel seems very dim indeed!

In the past, when a situation like this presented itself, a lawman of some rapport was called in to find a resolution.

In the summer of 1881, desperado’s who were hell bent on lawlessness and general skulduggery overran Tombstone Arizona. In response, the marshal’s office called in the famous lawman Wyatt Earp to assist his brothers Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp to rid the town of the desperados. One gang in particular was a problem, the Earp’s, assisted by Doc Holiday took to the town square and confronted the Clanton Gang which ultimately resulted in the most famous gunfight in history, The Gunfight at O.K Coral. Three of the Clanton’s were killed with only two of the Earp’s injured.

Now this is all heroic and stuff, but imagine getting a lawman such as Wyatt Earp in South Africa to sort out our problems? The Clanton Gang only numbered 10 people. TOI TOIing locals number thousands at a time! 100 Wyatt Earps cant sort out our problems.

The other route would be to hire a gunman/bounty hunter to target specific perpetrators.

Between 1878 and 1881, Billy the Kid was the most wanted desperado in the Wild West, by all accounts he was the second most wanted desperado of all time behind Jessie James. His reign of terror was so great that lawman Patrick ‘Pat” Garrett was hired as a bounty hunter to assassinate the Kid.

Whats interesting to note is that the price on the Kids head at the time was a measly $500.

Now who the FEK would such a lawman in South Africa target? If you kill the one, a more evil bastard will just take his place.

Watching The Magnificent Seven on the weekend it was brought to the attention of the audience that it must have been nice to live in the Wild West. Someone pisses you off, you take out your gat and shoot them down, no court case, no blood feuds no license for the gat nothing. Mind you, how different is South Africa presently?